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“The Worst Deal Ever Made”
The Worst Deal Ever Made
Wade Webster
Through human history, there have been some really bad deals made. For example, in the Louisiana Purchase, the U.S. acquired 828,000 square miles of land for approximately three cents an acre. While this wasn’t such a bad deal for our country, it was a horrible deal for the French who sold it to us. More recently, the 2007 draft was a disaster for two professional teams. The Oakland Raiders had the first pick in the NFL draft and the Portland Trailblazers had the first pick in the NBA draft. Both franchises spent millions to sign their respective selections. Yet, just five years later, neither multi-million dollar pick was playing. In hindsight, these were bad deals. However, they were not the worst deals ever made.
The worst deal in history doesn’t involve land purchased for pennies or sports selections signed for millions. It doesn’t involve Enron stock or swamp land. The worst deal ever made involves the soul. It involves trading the soul for the world. Jesus asked, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mt. 16:26). If someone offered you every house, every car, every boat, every plane, every acre, every diamond, every ruby, every sapphire, every pearl, every oil well, every business, and every dollar in the world for your soul, would you take it? If you accepted the offer, you would live to regret it. Your soul is worth more than all of those things combined and compounded a million times over. Yet, as you know, countless people trade their souls for the world every day. Likely, on a daily basis, Satan makes this sales pitch to you. Let me give you three reasons why trading your soul for the world is a bad deal.
The World Is Passing Away
Trading your soul for the world is a bad trade because it involves trading the eternal (the soul) for the temporal (the world). John declared, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever” (1 John 2:15-17; cf. 2 Cor. 4:18). In like manner, Peter declared, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness” (2 Pet. 3:10-11; cf. John 6:27). This world is passing away. Therefore, we must not make it our home. It makes no sense to trade that which is not passing away (the soul) for that which is passing away (the world).
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declared, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Mt. 6:19-21; Jam. 1:11; Prov. 23:5; 27:24; Eccl. 5:11-16). Things in this world are corruptible. In this life, we have to deal with rust, moths, and thieves. Why would we trade the incorruptible for this? Like Paul, we should be striving for incorruptible crowns, rather than for corruptible ones. Paul wrote, “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” (1 Cor. 9:24-27).
